Fogo e parões de interação aranha-planta no cerrado: impactos em comunidades associadas a recursos florais

Abstract

Understanding how environmental disturbances shape ecological interactions is fundamental for biodiversity conservation, especially in fire-adapted biomes like the Cerrado. Fire acts as a severe environmental filter, drastically altering vegetation structure and resource availability, which imposes challenges to maintaining the associated arthropod fauna. In this study, we investigated the impacts of a fire event on the abundance and richness of spiders associated with flowering plants, evaluating the mediating role of extrafloral nectaries (EFNs) and floral complexity in the maintenance of these communities. The research compared data collected in the same area during pre- and post fire periods. We observed that the occurrence of fire resulted in a sharp reduction in spider abundance and richness, in addition to modifying the plant community composition. Plants exclusive to the pre-fire period sustained the highest spider densities, indicating that post fire plant species turnover affects the associated fauna. Furthermore, the presence of EFNs proved to be a significant factor for spiders: plants bearing these structures consistently harbored greater spider abundance and richness, as well as the highest number of inflorescences per plant and flowers per inflorescence, regardless of the period. Our results suggest that, although fire causes negative impacts through habitat simplification, plant functional traits, such as the presence of EFNs, play a vital role in the resilience and structuring of arthropod communities in post-disturbance scenarios.